The
BOLDE Project (Business Organization in Late Developing Economies), directed by Professor Nuria Puig, has created a website to disseminate its current research. Created by
Professor Puig and her colleagues, the project "examines the relationship between business organization and economic development from an economic and business history perspective. It does so by systematically and
comparatively analyzing the emergence and development of economic groups in Spain and Latin America, the starting hypothesis being that in late industrializing countries business groups constitute an efficient alternative to the large managerial firm." As the researchers state:
The available research on Spanish and Latin American business history suggests that the large, multidivisional managerial enterprise is not an appropriate paradigm for studying the business organizational structure of late developing countries. Alternative organizational structures such as business groups, networks, industrial districts, and family firms seem far more adequate than the Chandlerian model for understanding the dynamics of markets and firms in Spanish-speaking countries. . . . The group created around the Urquijo Bank, the most important in 20th-century Spain as well as an influential partner in various Latin American groups, provides an excellent case study upon which to build a conceptual, dynamic, and comparative analysis of business groups, particularly with regard to their growth strategies and responses to major economic shocks.
So far, the site provides information on the group's personnel and
objectives, as well as a
bibliography of publications on the overall topic made by the project's members.
